We very nearly went to the beach.But we ended up in a cave, half-way up a mountain in Uthai Thani.
It's a part of Thailand I've never visited before and the scenery looked amazing. We found this house on AirBnB and took a 3 hour drive North from Bangkok.
Dan, our friendly host , told us about the Khao Plara cave paintings. The path up started less than a kilometre away. So the next morning we decided to go and have a look.
I was expecting a normal Thai tourist attraction with concrete steps and a dodgy handrail. What we found was a 900 metre pile of rocks.None of us were prepared for how hard it was. Trainers and shorts were definitely not ideal for full-on scrambling.
The path was steep. So steep in places it had me on all fours. It was a rocky channel that zigzagged up through the jungle clinging to the mountainside. No handrail in sight! One bad slip would have you off the edge.After 90 minutes of sweating we all made it to the top in one piece.
Then there was a magical moment. Clambering round the corner of the cave and seeing above me stunning images created 3000 years ago.
Looking at the paintings showing prehistoric people running and dancing, made me think. We have many advantages over those ancient inhabitants of Khao Plara.But they had one thing we have lost: a body in its primal state.
Conditioned by their vigorous lifestyle to a state of biomechanical perfection few modern humans ever experience. But ours is the same body - we just don't understand how flexibility works, yet. When we get this knowledge it will unlock a new level of health for everyone.